SpaceX achieves record-breaking 2024, looks ahead to 2025

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SpaceX is gearing up for another record-breaking year in 2025 after surpassing all previous record-breaking years in 2024. The company launched 138 times in 2024, 134 of which were with its Falcon family of rockets. While SpaceX suffered three mishaps during the third quarter of the year, the company was able to fix these issues and continue with its record-breaking cadence.

SpaceX also made great progress on its human spaceflight programs with Dragon and continued deploying its Starlink satellite constellation, which continues to expand its user base at an accelerated pace. The company also launched its Starship rocket, the world’s most powerful rocket, four times — finally achieving the return of a Super Heavy booster to the launch site and acing three consecutive reentries of the Starship vehicle. 

Falcon and Dragon

In 2024, SpaceX once again became the most active launch operator in the world, with 134 launches of its Falcon family of rockets, two of which were with the triple-core Falcon Heavy. This is nearly a 40 percent increase in launch cadence from 2023, when the company launched 96 missions with its Falcon rockets.

These 134 missions accounted for more than half of all launches worldwide, meaning that the sum of all launches from all launch providers worldwide was still below that of what SpaceX accomplished in 2024. 

Launcher origin Launches Successes Failures Partial Failures
US SpaceX 134 133 1 0
Others 20 20 0 0
China 68 65 2 1
Russia 17 17 0 0
Japan 7 5 2 0
India 5 5 0 0
Iran 4 4 0 0
Europe 3 2 0 1
North Korea 1 0 1 0
TOTAL 259 251 6 2

Caption: Table showing the number of launches per country of origin and their outcomes in 2024.

SpaceX accomplished this unprecedented cadence despite three mishaps during the third quarter of 2024. In July 2024, SpaceX suffered its first launch failure in 335 flights,. In August 2024, a booster landing failure broke the company’s streak of 267 consecutive successful booster landings. A third mishap occurred after the launch of the Crew-9 mission during the disposal of the Falcon 9 second stage that supported the launch.

Although these failures slowed SpaceX’s launch cadence, the pauses were only temporary. Multiple factors helped achieve a fast return to flight after each mishap, the main factor being the extensive experience SpaceX teams have accrued over the years as Falcon has become the company’s workhorse rocket. 

The time it took to solve these issues was substantially shorter than the time required to solve issues early in Falcon 9’s history, such as the in-flight breakup during the CRS-7 mission or the pre-launch pad explosion of the AMOS-6 mission.

SpaceX’s extensive fleet of boosters and fairings, along with an increased second stage production capacity, also allowed for a quick return to launches as soon as the issues were fixed or understood. 

While it took approximately 10 years for Falcon 9 to reach 100 launches, the 200th launch was accomplished only three years later, and in 2024, the rocket achieved its 300th and 400th launch for a total of 417 launches by the end of 2024. 

During 2024, SpaceX once again was able to substantially reduce its launch pad turnaround times, achieving new records for the shortest time between launches from the same pad. 

Launch Pad 2023 turnaround record 2024 turnaround record
Space Launch Complex 40 (SLC-40) 3 days, 21 hours, 41 minutes 2 days, 15 hours, 53 minutes
Launch Complex 39A (LC-39A) 8 days, 19 hours, 20 minutes 5 days, 7 hours, 9 minutes, 30 seconds
Space Launch Complex 4 East (SLC-4E) 6 days, 13 hours, 44 minutes, 40 seconds 3 days, 15 hours, 23 minutes, 40 seconds

Caption: 2023 and 2024 pad turnaround times for SpaceX’s Falcon launch pads.

These records were also not just one-off events, as the company consistently reduced its average turnaround time from each pad relative to 2023. This translated into more launches from each pad in 2024, with seven more launches from SLC-40 than in 2023, 18 more from SLC-4E, and 13 more from LC-39A.

Decreasing turnaround times and increasing launch numbers is impressive when SpaceX has to adapt its pads for certain vehicles. For example, SpaceX only launched Falcon Heavy twice in 2024, and every time Falcon Heavy, teams must reconfigure LC-39A to support the triple-core vehicle. This, in turn, produces a gap in launches from the pad about three weeks before and after the launch. Something similar happens for crew missions. Before crewed missions, either LC-39A or SLC-40 is often taken up for a week or two before launch to conduct rehearsals, adapt the launch site with crew-specific hardware, etc.

SpaceX completed its construction of a launch tower and crew access arm (CAA) at SLC-40 this year as well. SLC-40’s CAA was first used with cargo on the CRS-30 mission in March and was later used with crew on the Crew-9 mission in September. Having CAA’s at both LC-39A and SLC-40 allows SpaceX to schedule Falcon Heavy, crewed, cargo, and satellite missions close to each other without conflict.

The Crew-9 mission was originally scheduled to launch from LC-39A but was later changed to SLC-40 when a re-planning of the mission forced NASA and SpaceX to launch the mission in late September. If it had launched from LC-39A, Crew-9 would have conflicted with the Falcon Heavy launch of NASA’s Europa Clipper mission, which had a very stringent planetary window to meet.

In 2024, SpaceX was also granted approval to launch up to 50 times from Vandenberg Space Force Base in California — up from the previously approved 36 launches from the site. SpaceX started extending this number to 100 for 2025 and initiated the environmental assessment for Space Launch Complex 6 (SLC-6) to allow for the launch of Falcon 9 and Falcon Heavy rockets from the pad. 

While no definitive number has been announced, CEO Elon Musk and other SpaceX officials have suggested that the company may be targeting upwards of 180 launches of its Falcon family of rockets in 2025. The addition of a fourth launch pad for Falcon will likely help towards this goal, although it is unclear whether SLC-6 will be brought online in 2025 or if the pad will become active in later years. 

SpaceX has also recently started the paperwork for adding new landing zones at LC-39A and SLC-40, which will allow the company to avoid using Landing Zones 1 and 2 at the former Launch Complex 13 launch site at the Cape Canaveral Space Force Station. The lease of this launch site will eventually expire, and it will be used by commercial launch companies Vaya Space and Phantom Space to launch their own rockets.

Including landing zones on SpaceX’s launch sites wouldn’t be new, as the company already has a landing zone at SLC-4E just a mere 400 meters away from the launch mount. These new landing zones in Florida would allow SpaceX to limit its impact on other users of the eastern range by reducing the affected footprint and number of roadblocks to just the area near LC-39A and SLC-40. 

Similar to its pad turnaround operations, SpaceX made great progress with its booster turnaround times in 2024. While in 2023, the average turnaround time of a booster was between 40 to 45 days, in 2024, the company was able to reduce the time down to 25 to 30 days.

One of the boosters, B1080, finally broke the booster turnaround time record that had been standing since 2022. The 2022 record was accomplished with booster B1062 between its fifth and sixth flights and stood at 21 days, 6 hours, 9 minutes, and 58 seconds. B1080 was able to nearly half this record, taking 13 days, 12 hours, 34 minutes, and 20 seconds between its twelfth and thirteenth flights. 

SpaceX expended six different boosters in 2024. Two of them, B1087 and B1089, were Falcon Heavy center cores; another two, B1064 and B1065, were Falcon Heavy side boosters; and another two, B1060 and B1061, were Falcon 9 boosters expended on high-energy missions. SpaceX also lost booster B1062 during a landing failure on its 23rd flight. 

The company introduced eight boosters into the fleet, partly to refresh the roster of boosters and partly to use them on missions that specifically needed new boosters. An example of the latter is the Falcon Heavy center cores of the GOES-U and Europa Clipper missions. 

The Falcon Heavy side boosters for GOES-U, B1072 and B1086, were also new. B1086 has since been reconverted into a Falcon 9 booster and has flown a mission as a Falcon 9 booster. The other four new boosters added to the fleet, B1082, B1083, B1085, and B1088, were regular Falcon 9 boosters, bringing the total number of active boosters to 17.

SpaceX also launched a booster on its 20th flight for the first time, with several other boosters following. As of the end of 2024, booster B1067 is the most-flown booster in the fleet at 24 flights. The company is working to certify booster reuses for up to 40 flights — well beyond the original goal of 10 flights when the Falcon 9 Block 5 upgrade was debuted in 2018. 

2024 also saw SpaceX predominantly use flight-proven fairings, with only a handful of missions featuring new fairing halves. As of the end of 2024, two fairing halves have now flown up to 22 times, the most of the fleet of fairing halves. Of all the fairing recoveries on the east coast, only two missions returned with one fairing half instead of two, and no mission had a complete loss of both fairings. 

In the last few months of 2024, SpaceX added new fairing identification stickers near the bottom of each fairing, allowing observers to identify and track fairing flight history. 

Of the 134 launches of Falcon rockets in 2024, 45 were for customers, up from 33 in 2023. This means that about one-third of all SpaceX launches were dedicated to customers, and two-thirds were dedicated to Starlink, a breakdown similar to 2023.

Month Government Commercial Smallsat Starlink Starshield TOTAL
January 0 3 0 7 0 10
February 2 2 0 5 0 9
March 2 1 1 8 0 12
April 2 0 1 9 0 12
May 1 1 0 10 1 13
June 1 1 0 8 1 11
July 0 1 0 5 0 6
August 1 2 1 8 0 12
September 2 2 0 4 1 9
October 2 1 0 7 1 11
November 3 1 0 11 1 16
December 1 3 1 7 1 13
TOTAL 17 18 4 89 6 134

Caption: Table showing the type of missions and their amounts per month in 2024.

These 45 customer missions launched several communication satellites into geosynchronous transfer orbit, such as Ovzon-3, Merah Putih 2, Eutelsat 36D, SES-24, Turksat 6A, Koreasat 6A, SXM-9, and four Astranis satellites. SpaceX also launched two missions for Maxar, launching two pairs of the company’s WorldView Legion Earth observation satellites. 

In February, SpaceX launched Odysseus, Intuitive Machines’ first Nova-C lunar lander and the second lander as part of NASA’s Commercial Lunar Payload Services (CLPS) program. 

SpaceX also launched for other competitors in the satellite constellation market, launching five BlueBird satellites for AST SpaceMobile, 20 OneWeb satellites, and a pair of O3b mPOWER satellites for SES. 

In January, SpaceX launched a Northrop Grumman Cygnus spacecraft on a Falcon 9 rocket for the first time and repeated the same feat in August with the NG-21 mission. Another mission, NG-22, is expected to take place in 2025 as Northrop Grumman continues developing the Antares 330 rocket alongside Firefly Aerospace. 

SpaceX continued to launch missions as part of its Smallsat Rideshare Program in 2024, launching the tenth and eleventh Transporter missions. SpaceX debuted a new mission type under this program called Bandwagon, which carry payloads into mid-inclination low-Earth orbits (LEO) instead of Sun-synchronous orbits on Transporter flights. 

SpaceX also launched several missions for the U.S. government, including NOAA’s GOES-U and NASA’s PACE and Europa Clipper missions. The company launched the USSF-124 and USSF-62 missions for the U.S. Space Force as part of the agency’s National Security Space Launch (NSSL) Phase 2 contract. Additionally, the U.S. Space Force launched a rapid response mission on Falcon 9, dubbed “Rapid Response Trailblazer 1” (RRT), that launched the seventh GPS-III satellite. 

Foreign governments also took advantage of Falcon 9, with the European space market predominantly using Falcon 9. European payloads such as EarthCare and Hera from the European Space Agency and the Galileo global navigation satellites launched into orbit on Falcon 9 rockets in 2024.  Norway launched its Arctic Satellite Broadband Mission on Falcon 9 in partnership with the U.S. Space Force. Outside of Europe, India made use of Falcon 9 to launch its GSAT-20 satellite. 

2024 was a milestone year for Dragon, with the Polaris Dawn mission successfully testing a new extravehicular activity suit developed by SpaceX. The mission marked several firsts for SpaceX and Dragon, which will be used on future Polaris flights to prepare for the first crewed launch of Starship. The company also continued its crew rotation missions to the International Space Station (ISS) on Dragon.

 

With an expected increase in cadence in 2025, SpaceX is expected to increase the number of customer missions this year as well. If the same mix of customer and Starlink missions is maintained in 2025, the company could eventually launch up to 60 customer missions, depending on payload availability. 

Some customer missions launching in 2025 include the Kompsat-7A, Nusantara Lima, and Thuraya 4-NGS satellites — the latter of which being the first payload of the year for SpaceX. The company also has several launches planned for competitors in the mega constellation market, with up to three launches of Amazon’s Kuiper constellation, the deployment of Globalstar third-generation satellites, and more BlueBird satellites from AST SpaceMobile set to launch on Falcon 9 in 2025. 

SpaceX also plans to launch several missions with payloads bound for the lunar surface. Firefly’s Blue Ghost and iSpace’s Hakuto-R landers are set to fly on Falcon 9 as soon as January 2025. Intuitive Machines is planning to launch its second Nova-C lander on a Falcon 9 in February, and Astrobotic is tentatively planning to launch its Griffin lander on a Falcon Heavy later this year. 

More flights of the Dragon spacecraft are expected in 2025, with two crew rotation missions for NASA, several cargo resupply missions to the ISS, and two private crew flights. One of them, Fram2, will be the first crewed mission to be launched into a polar orbit and is currently set to fly no earlier than March 2025. 

NASA has several science missions flying on Falcon 9 this year, including SPHEREx, PUNCH, IMAP, TSIS, and TRACERS. 

The United States Department of Defense has many launches booked this year on SpaceX rockets. These include six standalone missions, USSF-36, USSF-31, USSF-75, USSF-70, NROL-77, and NROL-69, as well as several flights of batches of satellites for the Space Development Agency’s Tranche 1 constellation. 

Foreign governments are once again expected to use Falcon rockets in 2025, with Spain having booked a pair of launches for two military communication satellites. Luxembourg has booked a Falcon 9 to launch its National Advanced Optical System reconnaissance satellite from Vandenberg. The European Union has a pair of Sentinel satellites set to launch across two Falcon 9 missions in 2025.

Starlink

In 2024, Starlink launches dominated SpaceX’s schedule once again. 89 out of the 134 Falcon launches were dedicated to Starlink. Additionally, 6 of the 45 customer missions were dedicated to the National Reconnaissance Office’s (NRO) Proliferated Space Architecture program.

Under this program, the NRO plans to deploy hundreds to thousands of military reconnaissance satellites into LEO, a departure from the agency’s use of large, dedicated reconnaissance satellites. These new NRO satellites are believed to be based on SpaceX’s Starshield satellite system, a version of the Starlink satellite bus dedicated to U.S. government applications.

Across the 89 dedicated missions, SpaceX launched 1,962 Starlink satellites, with an additional 20 satellites launching aboard the NROL-126 mission.

SpaceX introduced the new Starlink Direct to Cell (DTC) satellites in 2024. These satellites can connect directly to unmodified cellphones on the ground using a large deployable antenna. The satellites act like cell towers in space, connecting to the regular Starlink constellation through laser links for backhaul connectivity. 

Of the 1,982 Starlink satellites launched in 2024, 388 were DTC satellites. The first constellation of DTC satellites was completed in November, and a second constellation is already being launched and is expected to be completed in 2025. 

In 2024, SpaceX also debuted a new version of its Starlink v2 Mini satellite with upgraded communications, propulsion, avionics, and power systems, as well as a reduction in mass. This allowed SpaceX to launch up to 24 satellites at a time on a Falcon 9 rocket, and the company plans to increase this number to 29 satellites per launch.

Starlink’s customer base doubled from 2.3 million users at the end of 2023 to 4.6 million users at the end of 2024. Starlink expanded to 27 new markets, and SpaceX started mass producing Starlink user terminals at the company’s new factory in Bastrop, Texas. 

In 2025, SpaceX is expected to continue mass deployment of its Starlink and Starshield satellites and debut the Starlink v3 satellite on Starship.

Starship

Starship had a pivotal year in 2024, flying four times and progressively achieving more key milestones to demonstrate full reusability and operational use. 

Over the four flights in 2024, SpaceX demonstrated that Starship can safely go through reentry to a pinpoint landing, Super Heavy boosters can land at the launch tower at Starbase, and Starship can maneuver in space and change its orbit. 

SpaceX also demonstrated launching two Starship missions within less than 40 days, reducing the launch pad’s turnaround time even further. Each of these milestones is key for the future of Starship, especially in 2025.

In 2024, SpaceX expanded its production facility, building a nearly one million-square-foot factory for Starship, nicknamed the “Starfactory.” Inside it, SpaceX has started producing a new generation of Starship vehicles that will improve the rocket’s capabilities, durability, and performance.

As outlined before, SpaceX also hopes to launch its Starlink v3 satellites in 2025 and is already planning a deployment test of 10 satellite simulators on Starship’s next flight. 

Other milestones set for this year include extended on-orbit testing of the ship, the ship’s landing back at the launch tower arms, and the transfer of propellants in orbit between ships. These will likely lead to secondary milestones, such as the first reuse of a Super Heavy booster and potentially a ship.

SpaceX aims to fly Starship up to 25 times in 2025 and has already started a tiered environmental assessment with the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) to increase the number of launches allowed at Starbase per year from five to 25. 

In 2024, SpaceX started constructing a second launch pad at Starbase in South Texas, which should increase Starship’s launch cadence in 2025. SpaceX also resumed its Starship activity in Florida, where teams are reconfiguring Starship launch hardware at LC-39A to update it for the new design. The company also continues to work on its environmental assessment for this updated design and increased cadence, aiming for an initial cadence of 44 launches per year from LC-39A.

A second Starship launch pad is also expected to be built in Florida. In 2024, SpaceX started the regulatory paperwork needed for a Starship launchpad at Space Launch Complex 37, the former launch site of the now-retired Delta IV Heavy.

SpaceX is also expanding its footprint at Roberts Road within the Kennedy Space Center, where it is building the new Starship launch mount that will be placed at LC-39A. This north expansion will feature a first phase with an area as big as the Starbase production site in Texas. While perhaps no Starship launches may take place from Florida in 2025, the site will be abuzz with activity preparing for SpaceX’s future workhorse rocket.

(Lead image: Top left: Falcon Heavy’s launch of GOES-U, Falcon 9’s launch of Crew-9 (Credit: Max Evans for NSF). Top right: Jared Isaacman conducting his spacewalk during Polaris Dawn (Credit: Polaris Program). Bottom left: a Starlink v2-Mini satellite stack in orbit (Credit: SpaceX). Bottom right: the launch of Starship’s sixth flight (Credit: D Wise for NSF))

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